Update (10/29/2015): A fifth person who visited the Wenatchee Safeway is now confirmed to have contracted Legionnaires’ Disease and is currently hospitalized at Central Washington Hospital.
Four people have contracted Legionnaires’ disease (legionellosis) in an outbreak that may have been caused by water misters in the produce section of the Safeway grocery store located on North Miller Street in Wenatchee, Washington.1 After the grocery store location proved to be the only common link between the reported cases, the misters were closed on Friday, October 23rd, until health officials test them for Legionella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease.
Legionella bacteria can grow in water misters that are not cleaned properly. If a shopper breathes in contaminated mist, the bacteria can colonize in the lungs and cause pneumonia.
Can I Sue a Grocery Store for Legionnaires’ Disease?
Yes, if your illness is linked to the store, either a produce water mister or another water source in the building, you may have the right to sue for money damages, including amounts for pain and suffering, medical expenses and lost wages. You need to contact an attorney to find out if you have a case.
If you visited this Safeway in the last month and are experiencing symptoms of pneumonia such as extreme fatigue, disorientation, high fever, chest pains when coughing, or chills, you should contact your physician or go to the emergency room immediately to be tested for legionellosis. While most people recover from Legionnaires’ disease, 5 to 30% of those who contract the bacteria die. The death rate can be as high as 50% for victims who are immuno-suppressed.
Produce Misters Have Caused Past Outbreaks
The danger that poorly maintained, contaminated grocery store misters pose to the community has been attested since 1989, when 2 people died and over 30 were made ill with Legionnaires’ Disease contracted at a Winn Dixie store in Bogalusa, Louisiana. The outbreak prompted Winn Dixie to remove the misters from the 97 of its stores where they were installed; other national grocery chains including Safeway, Vons, and Alpha Beta temporarily followed suit.
Yet in 2006 over a dozen supermarket customers in Spain were sickened by the Legionnella bacteria, prompting renewed calls from researchers, the CDC, and a few state health departments to issue warnings that poorly cleaned misting systems could harbor the bacteria. Isolated infections have continued to be reported, such as the case investigated by WISN12 of an otherwise healthy 92-year-old Milwaukee man who is believed to have died after contracting LD from a grocery store mister in 2013.
Grocery store owners have thus been long aware of the need to frequently inspect, test, and clean their misters. After the Louisiana outbreak, according to the CDC’s summary of this incident (MMWR, February 23, 1990 / 39(7);108-110), “for ultrasonic mist machines used in produce sections of grocery stores, FDA has issued guidelines that specify weekly disassembly and cleaning, which includes use of a hypochlorite solution (at least 50 ppm).”
Source: 1. http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/legionnaires-disease-outbreak-wenatchee-could-be-l/nn9qq/